A Noble Cause
by Reidfan
Summary: The third and final installment of the "Sophie Saga", Reid is in hot pursuit of his favorite latina, she's been abducted by an egomaniac bioengineer, Reid will have to cross not only international but emotional barriers to get to her.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Sorry it's taken me sooo long to update, but this is the third and finally installment of what I've taken to calling the "Sophie Saga", I wanted this to be the cream of the crop so I've taken great pains with the plots, the characters and the action of course! This first one is short, but the second chapter will be up my mid week this week. Thank you so much for all the positive reviews, the great ideas and constructive critisism, it really does help!**_

A tv announcer was expounded the same facts over and over again. _" Today a woman has been taken from the Quantico area and the man believed to have her is driving a white late model BMW, the man is believed to be armed and dangerous and if seen you should contact the FBI number on the bottom of the screen immediately." _

This same message had been playing for the last 15 minutes, Prentiss and Hotch had stayed behind while Reid had recruited Morgan (who needed very little convincing) to canvass the most likely routes Noble had taken out of the city. Morgan was battling rush hour traffic while Reid was going over his calculations over and over, trying to ensure their accuracy, if he was wrong and chose the wrong route, the wrong destination Sophie could be dead in minutes and that thought made him forget to breathe, he had started to turn blue when Morgan looked over. "Reid! Reid man which way?" Morgan had come to a fork in the traffic. "Uh…. Left sorry." Morgan made the turn fast and hard ignoring the annoyed honking of the other commuters. "You think he's going to the airport?" Morgan asked as he turned onto the expressway which lead to the international terminal of Arlington airport. Reid took a moment again to answer, he still hadn't gotten this whole breathing thing down yet, it was like Sophie was oxygen, he hadn't realized how much a part of him she'd become. "Do you think we did the right think by keeping the fact she's an agent out of the press?" It had been his idea, he had thought he was protecting her. By withholding that information, he was hoping to take some of the pressure off Noble and therefore maybe give Sophie a chance to…" He knew the statistics and for the first time in Spencer Reids' life, numbers didn't matter.

"We're gonna find her kid, she's coming home safe." Morgan had said this with the reassurance he knew the occasion called for and even though he had all faith in his team and in his own abilities he prayed he was right, something he didn't do often. Reid seemed to begin a normal breathing rhythm again. "Turn right here, yeah right down this service road." Morgan looked puzzled by the instruction but had learned over the years that second guessing the kid was foolhardy. A long concrete road stretched out in front of them, Morgan could see what looked like a dock up ahead, the shipping yard, on the river was behind the airport. "I think he's taking her by ship, more likely an international shipping tanker with lots of places to hide, I've called the harbor master and instructed him not to let any ship leave this dock, if he has her still he wouldn't want to risk flying, he knows he's be arrested as soon as they landed, this would be the only way to get her out of the area, I just wish I knew why he took her." Reid's voice quavered at the last bit, he was a ball of emotions he'd never felt before, rage, protective instinct and an all too familiar vein of pure determination.

Sophie's head was bleeding, she didn't quite know from where, but she knew she was because it was falling into her eyes. Her hair was matted to her head and she couldn't move her arms or legs, she felt a dull aching in her neck and knew she had been injected with some type of narcotic. She hadn't made it easy for Noble, she kicked and screamed, punched and bitten him, he had howled in pain before he had yanked her by her long hair to the ground and kicked her in the ribs, which she thankfully couldn't feel at the moment. He must have waited until the guards had gone on a coffee break, she knew if anyone had heard her he never would've gotten out alive. She was trying to look around her, to listen to what was happening outside. "_Okay, Sophie, think. It's dark, we're obviously on the move, he knows the whole Bureau will be looking for us. Where is he going? It's not like there's anywhere to hide in U.S. they wouldn't find us." Just as she was beginning to get her bearings, she felt the car go up an incline and come to abrupt halt after leveling out again._

_Prentiss and Hotch were hovering over Garcia as if somehow their presence would somehow make the cyber world work faster. "Newer model cars usually have GPS systems, have we checked to see if Noble's beamer had one?" Garcia tried (unsuccessfully to hid her chagrin at the question) "Emily, really? Who do you think I am sweetheart?" "Right sorry." Prentiss looked genuinely embarrassed, but everyone in the room understood how critical it was to find Sophie as soon as possible. Hotch was leaning up against the far desk on the left, "Garcia, can you access the NSA satellite system? It could give us a clearer picture of the paths he took once leaving the BAU. Access the system by any means necessary, that's a direct order from me." Hotch had added the last part as Garcia was about to tell him that she had no "official" access to those databases and doing so could put her in hot water with the brass. "Yes sir." Her fingers flew over the keyboard and she immediately dialed Morgan. "Hey Baby girl. You have something for us?" Morgan knew she was in no mood to be frisky. "I think he's headed to the shipping dock, I hacked into the NSA database and from his movements after he grabbed our girl that looks like the most likely place."_

"_That what Reid thought, we're headed there now, he already called the harbor master, no ships are leaving the port." Morgan was just starting to think they would be taking Sophie out for drinks after this until Garcia spoke again. "Sweeties, I just spoke to the Harbor Master, he says someone matching Nobles description just drove onto a foreign freighter and when the Harbor patrol tried to board, they pulled out semi-automatic weapons and opened fire. The ship was headed full steam for international waters. The three patrolmen are en route to the hospital now. I've already called the coast guard but they're at least an hour out." No sooner had Garcia finished her sentenced that they say flashing lights and sirens flying past them in the opposite direction. Reid felt sick to his stomach, Sophie was on a ship with a homicidal maniac, on board a ship that in a few hours, he would have no jurisdiction over. "Garcia what was that ships port of origin?" Reid was trying to process all the information he'd just received. "China, it's a commercial Chinese freighter." Reid's level of terror could not increase but he knew what Noble was going to do to her, he knew why he'd taken her now and now more than ever he had to find her before they reached international waters._


	2. Chapter 2

Before Garcia could finish her sentence Morgan had floored the gas pedal and was burying the needle on the government issues suburban. "He's trying to get to international waters, he's her to finish it." Reids voice was calm and collected which took Morgan by surprise. "What is he trying to finish kid? Why take her? It makes no sense. If you're trying to make a getaway…" 

"Then you take someone important. Sophie had just been made Unit Chief of the Organized Crime division, in the last press conference she promised to crack down on human trafficking rings and drug cartels." 

"So she pissed off a lot of powerful gang leaders." It was more of statement than a question the way Morgan said it. A crackle came over the suburban's police scanner. "Agent Reid?" A woman's voice who Reid didn't recognize came across the radio. He picked up the walkie. "This is Agent Reid with the BAU." 

"Agent there is a man whose on the distress channel, says he needs to speak to you, says he has something you want, he's threatening to blow up the freighter."

"Put him through" Reid's entire body tensed at the thought of Sophie in the trunk of a car.

"And Agent?"

"What is it?" Reid had snapped her with the anger and resentment meant for Noble.

"He says he's headed directly for the main port, the one that leads out to sea…he says if he doesn't get safe passage he isn't going to surrender."

"T-Thank you.." Reid didn't wait for the dispatcher to patch him through. "Morgan we have to beat Port Authority there." Morgan looked at Reid for a moment but trusted the word of his friend and tried pushing the engine just a little harder.

The radio crackled again. "Dr. Reid, how nice of you to see us off. Make sure to tell your friends to stay out of the way, or else the party will come to end for all of us much too soon."

"Let her go and no one will stop you from leaving with your friends." Reid knew it wouldn't work but he had to try.

"I think our Sophie here is the only thing keeping me alive at the moment, but you should know that there is enough C-4 on this ship to blow up the entire port, I'm sure you don't want that on your conscious, so just tell them to clear the way and no one has to get hurt."

"You've kidnapped an agent Noble, you know there's no way they're going to just let you go." Morgan had grabbed the walkie. Reid was already opening the door of the suv to jump out, he had to reach the port authority before they tried to stop that freighter. 

"Wait! Wait!" Reid yelled at the Port Authority officers boarding ship and revving their engines. Before Morgan could stop him, Reid did a running jump on to the back of the speed boat with the officers. He was yelling at one of them, trying to convince him to turn around. The officer just kept shaking his head. Morgan watched helplessly as Reid rode right into the mouth of hell.

"You have to listen, he will blow up this entire port, everyone on that ship, everyone on the docks, will die unless you listen to me." Reid was so frustrated at his inability to communicate the extreme danger they were all in. The crackle came again. "Agent Reid, I see you speeding toward me, I hope you're no going to try for a hostage exchange you're not really my type. You don't have this fabulous auburn hair." Reid knew Noble was taunting him, then he heard her voice. "Spencer, don't board this ship, whatever you do, do not board this ship. Lasciate ogni speranza voi che entrate." She yelled her last sentence before her heard Noble pull her away, what she said had chilled him to the bone. 

The Port Authority agents were gearing up to try and take the ship. Reid had to find a way to stop them. They were armed with assault rifles, tear gas and any other thing you could think of. Reid noticed they had stopped, and the agents were out on deck, he quietly made his way to the cabin. He had never driven a boat before and he knew he couldn't get this wrong, he was analyzing the entire switchboard full of knobs and gadgets when he heard someone coming, in that moment he operated on instinct alone which was completely unfamiliar to him, without knowing it, he had pulled his sidearm and was pointing it at the stairs leading to the cabin, he could not let a bunch of alpha males blow up an entire port. Reid had steered the boat back towards the harbor, speeding back to his team, he had to get them to let Noble go, he knew where he was taking Sophie and right now that's all that mattered, she was alive. 

A man appeared in front of him, gun drawn. "You need to step away from the controls and let us do our job." The captains voice was quavering, he did not want to shoot a kid who was younger than his own children. "You don't understand, he has explosives on board, he's not above killing himself and taking everyone he can with him, he doesn't care whether he lives or dies, he only cares about causing as much damage as he can." Reid looked the captain in the eye but did not lower his weapon. "How can you know that son? How can you know he won't just kill that agent as soon as they reach international waters?"

"Because he wants to torture me and he knows the best way to do that is to take her, it's a game to him and he doesn't want it to be over yet."

They had reached the dock where his team was waiting. He knew this was not going to go well for him. The captain made a beeline for Hotch who he took to be the leader as he was dressed in suit and tie. "You in charge?" It was more a threat than a question. "I'm Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner."

"You can all be as special as you want, but since when does the FBI negotiate with terrorists and let them escape to international waters with a cargo hold full of people?" Hotch looked to Reid for an answer but when he couldn't find it he took matters in to his own hands. "Agent Reid is a seasoned agent and member of the Behavior Analysis Unit, he's been trained in the psychology of hostage negotiation, he acted on information given to him by the suspect and took the course of action with minimal loss at great personal risk to himself, I might add. Our infrared cameras show there is enough explosives in that ships cargo to create a crater in this port, you and your men owe your lives to him." 

Noble wasn't here now. He had pulled her into a corner by her hair and she remembered fighting, but she couldn't remember why now. He had hurt her, there had been blood, she tasted it on her lip but this blood was different it was on her arm now. She could see IV sticking out of her arm, she went to pull it out but she realized she couldn't move her arms, her legs felt like dead trunks. She realized she was on a camp bed in a metal room somewhere on the ship. She saw the door open and her heart beat a little faster, she was terrified Spencer wouldn't heed her warning. When she saw Max's face twisted with a mix of rage and contentment she knew he had somehow gotten out of the harbor. "You're little hero wannabe is pathetic, he couldn't even be bothered to come and get you. How does that make you feel Sophie? How does it make you feel to be nothing worth dying for?" He asked her as he cut away her clothes with his butterfly knife, the same which had given her the thin scar she would have forever on her neck. He caressed her body with that knife threatening her with it. "Such a shame to waste such prime meat."

"I'm not like you Max, I don't need anyone to die for me to be happy. I'm not a coward like you, you're the biggest pussy I know Max, always letting everyone else do the dirty work." She sneered at him.

"I think it's you whose the cunt Sophie, but you'll find out. Oh and this time you won't be able to scream." He pulled out a syringe it had a vicious looking purple liquid in it. She began to struggle in her restraints but it was useless her limbs were weak from whatever he'd given her before. She felt it hit her bloodstream, her whole body was on fire, it was like she was paralyzed in the middle of an inferno. Then a sudden coma set in, she was aware of her surroundings, could see everything but she couldn't hear anything. She saw him then, leering over her, he leaned in close to her. "I want you to know, this is going to hurt and I'm going to love it." She felt his knife slit her, small tiny cuts and then he did the unthinkable, she refused to let him see her waver, she did not close her eyes. She stared at him, defiant and unyielding.

Reid wasted no time in explaining himself to anyone, when they got back to the BAU, he grabbed his go bag and was headed out the door. "Reid, wheels up in 20." "Hotch I have to go find her. I can't go with you guys."

"Reid, we're going with you, this team is about more than just work, it's like a family for some of us, it's the only family we have left. We can't let you go out there on your own. The Chinese liaison is waiting for us. We will find her Reid." Hotch squeezed his shoulder. Reid knew Hotch wouldn't stop until they found her, he just hoped they wouldn't be too late.


End file.
